Messing with Emma
by Jenni N
Summary: How will Emma handle THIS situation at the grocery store? A mental clerk and her toneless tone...bring popcorn! Better yet, give them to me so the clerk won't have to"check it", if you know what I mean. Book Three of the CBH Series!
1. Meet Darley

Emma Tolly sat on her bed, humming to herself as she drew a lovely duck, her duck to be exact. Nancy wore a pink bow around her neck, loosely though, so she would be able to breath normally. Emma stopped every so often to admire Nancy's lovely white and yellow feathers before continuing on.

There was a knock on the door and Miss Ingledew popped her head through the doorway. "Emma, I need you to run to the grocery store for me and pick up two cartons of eggs, a full gallon of slim milk, a pack of steak, and 2 liters of soda, in case if we want to celebrate!"

"What are we celebrating?" asked Emma.

"Oh, you'll see!" Julia Ingledew said slyly. She reached into her purse and pulled out a handful of money and gave it to Emma, who stared at it with awe.

"Where did you get that?" she asked.

"Paton borrowed it from Grizelda," Julia said, smiling.

"Are we celebrating because he made it out alive?" Emma laughed.

"Maybe," Julia laughed along wih her niece.

Emma took the money and told Nancy that she would be back.

_**The Store at the Checkout Line...**_

__Emma heaved her basket of groceries onto the counter and the clerk, a very tired looking woman, scanned the milk first and said, "£300 ," the lady said in a toneless voice.

Emma almost laughed but she was a polite girl so she pointed out, "That says it's £ 3 miss,"

The lady looked down and said, "Oh...my bad," in a toneless voice again. She placed it in a bag and did the same thing over again with the eggs.

"£ 200 for the eggs I see..." she said tonelessly again. Emma was getting annoyed.

"That says £ 2!"

The lady looked down again and said, "My bad again..."

She placed it in the bag with the milk and grabbed the liter of soda. "£400, wow, what a price..."

"That's only £4, can you not see it?" Emma asked, steaming.

Tha lady didn't say anything. She just grabbed a new bag and placed the soda in the bag. Then she saw the pack of steak and said, "Steak huh? Wow, £1000! You must be rich..."

Emma's jaw dropped down. "It says-"

But she was interuppted by a ring. Tha lady held up a finger and pulled out her cell phone. "Hello?" the lady said into the phone. "Oh hi Bitzy, no, I'm not busy at all!"

Emma, who felt insulted, said, "Are you crazy?"

The lady said in an annoyed tone, "Hold on, I'm being interrupted by a very rude costumer!"

Emma let out an angry sigh. "Please, would you finish?" she asked through gritted teeth.

The lady stared and spoke to her phone again, "No, I'm not busy,"

Emma was fuming now. "Look, I haven't got all day. I usually am a nice person but you really ought to remember what you're doing!" Emma said desperately.

The lady hung up and said to Emma, "What do you want?"

"To finish my check-out please!" Emma said, hiding her fury. Perhaps this woman was mentally crazy. Then again, maybe she isn't...who is she kidding, of course this woman has GOT to be mentally crazy!

"Oh yes, why didn't you say so? All you had to do was ask," the woman said, back into her toneless voice. She placed the meat in with the soda and she started to scan the last item. "Eggs huh? £300 please ma'am."

"It says £3 if you really must know!" Emma said, feeling relieved that the chek-out was over...or was it???

"Pay up ma'am," the lady said, blowing a bubble with her gum.

Emma reached in her pocket and counted up the money. £22 is all Emma owed.

Emma handed it over and picked up her groceries to head out but the lady said, "Hold on, you're £1032 short."

"Even if I do owe a lot of money for the food, that isn't the right amount anyway," Emma said, groaning.

Then Charlie appeared next to Emma. "Hey Emma!" Charlie said.

Emma turned around and smiled. "Charlie! Good to see you, your mom works here, right? Well, this lady is bugging me about the prces a bit..."

"Oh Darley? She's like that all the time! Hey, I got a message from Uncle Paton from your aunt and she says to get some chips too."

"Would you stay to help?" Emma asked, she didn't want to be stuck with Darley the rest of the check-out.

"Er...sure?" Charlie forund himself saying.

Emma looked at the snack rack behind her and grabbed a bag of chips and said to Darley, "These too please,"

Darley took them and opened them, saying, "Let me check that they're not poison."

Emma and Charlie groaned. "Nooo...."

Darley went, "Not poison...not poison...not poison..."

Charlie laughed nervously. "I have to go Em, my mom needs me, gotta go, bye!" Charlie rushed off before Emma could protest.

"You owe me!" Emma called angrily.

"Not poison...not poison...not poison..." Darley said, eating one after another.

_**Five Minutes Later...**_

__"Not poison..." That all, would you like them back?" Darley asked Emma who shooked her head vigorously.

"That's okay, I'll get another one for you but first I have to check if they're not poison!" Darley said earnestly.

Emma moaned. "Oh nooo..."

"Not poison...POISON! No, just joking!" Darley said tonelessly as Emma's eyes widen with shock.

Emma's eyes went back to normal and she just left Darley eating away for any "poison".

"Wait, you forgot your chips!" Darley called after Emma.

Emma kept on walking and Darley shrugged and brushed her purple hair away. "Oh well, maybe my niece Olivia Vertigo would like them!"


	2. The Shocking Surprise

Emma stomped home, angered. "What kind of clerk is she anyway?"

She opened the store door and she was greeted by a grinning Olivia. "Emma! You got it, great! Now shush, my aunt's gonna be here any second! It's her anniversary and she loves books so I told her she could have the party here! Your aunt says it's okay! Come on, try the pie I made, it's good, no?"

Emma was suddenly rushed into the kitchen and she found herself 'mmm'ing with pleasure as Olivia shoved a small chunk of cherry pie into Emma's mouth. "Liv, it's amazing! You think I can have more?"

"There's plenty, go on, take two, three, and a million! Okay, probably not a million… come on! The others are in your room, getting ready!"

Emma was forced upstairs and Olivia gave her a small push into her room. Emma saw all of her friends in there, sitting in various places, her bed, the corner of the room, chairs, desks, under desks.

"Getting ready for what?" she asked, flabbergasted.

"The party silly!" Olivia said in a hurried and excited voice. "Aunt Darley's going to be here and we need to get ready!! She said she brought be a gift! Maybe it's purple hair dye, she has it on her hair right now, I saw it and it looked amazing!"

Emma froze. Weakly, she said, "Was she at the grocery store?"

Charlie gave Emma a weak smile and Olivia said, "Yeah, you saw her?"

Emma froze. "Ye-e-e-a-a-h-h-h…I saw her…will you please excuse me for a second?"

Olivia grabbed Emma's wrists and said, "Hold on, we have to put on your make-u! Then I want you to put on this dress in the bathroom since everyone else needs this room for THEIR make-up! Erm, did I say that out loud???"

"Make-up?" Billy cried. "We're just in here to put on MAKE-UP?"

The boys immediately stood up and made a run for the door but Olivia got there first and she blockaded the door with her body. "I am not going to have my aunt's party ruined by you boys so you need to look nice, it's just powder and maybe a bit of lip liner and nose liner."

Tancred stared. "What the heck is THAT?!"

Olivia reached into her pocket and pulled out the lip liner and the nose liner. "It's like eyeliner, but for your lips and nose so it's look even! Come on, just a bit!"

Emma, who had no intention that she'll ever meet Darley again, felt very, very, faint.


	3. The Party

"Come on Em, you have to go and say hi to her!" said Olivia excitedly as she pushed a reluctant Emma towards the bookstore.

Everyone had gotten ready and the boys, who had narrowly dodged Olivia's make-up invasion by promising that they'd tidy themselves up the best they can, were already coming down from Emma's bedroom.

Emma and Olivia entered the bookstore, the aroma of the food drawing them to the snack table.

"Oh wow, this looks superb!" Olivia said as she leaned in a sniffed the garlic bread.

"Olivia!"

Olivia spun around, her face brightening. "Aunt Darley!" she squealed.

They embraced each other and let go, grinning.

"Aunt Darley, this is Emma Tolly. I think you saw her earlier today at the grocery store, right?" Olivia said as the boys entered the bookstore.

Darley sized Emma up, who was feeling embarrassed.

Then her face broke out in a grin. "I remember her now!" She gave Emma a one arm hug and then wandered off to greet the other guests.

Emma stood there, confused. Earlier Darley was toneless and rude. Now she was acting like everyone was her best friend.

"Livvy," Emma said slowly.

"Yea?"

"Does your aunt sometime have mood swings?"

Olivia gaped at her. "How'd you know?" she asked.

"She was a little, erm, moody earlier." Emma said.

"Oh, she does that. Dunno what's wrong with her but when she's in a good mood she's fun to have around." said Olivia. "Oop, gotta go and see mom. She's over there. Be right back," she added as she walked to the other side of the bookstore.

"Erm, Em?"

Emma turned around and blushed. "Yes?" she said to Tancred, who was standing right beside her.

"You're kinda blocking the nachos."

"Oh," said Emma, trying to hide her disappointment. She moved to the side and allowed Tancred to fill his plate with nachos.

He wandered off to find Lysander, leaving Emma sighing in the corner.

The party went on, music playing with the adults jokingly dance around while laughing and talking.

The children however just ate and talked, trying very carefully not to get any food on the books.

It was nearly time for the party to end when Emma' aunt Julia changed the music to the type of music that kids her age would listen to.

Emma had forgotten about the earlier encounter with Olivia's aunt. She found that Olivia was right. Darley was fun when she wasn't in one of those moods.

At the end of the party, when almost everyone was home and when Tancred gave her a small peck on the forehead, she sat in one of the armchairs, sighing happily.

Darley came up to her with Olivia behind her.

"Em, Aunt Darley has a gift for you!" Olivia said eagerly.

"Really?" Emma said. "It's alright, you don't have to give me anything."

"Oh but I must," said Darley. She had something behind her hands. She made Emma close her eyes and hold out her hands.

She felt a plastic bag in her hands and she opened them. It was the same brand of chips that she had tried to buy earlier, and it wasn't checked for poison!

"Oh, that's very thoughtful but the party's over." said Emma.

"That's for you, you know, as a snack." said Olivia. She walked away to her mother, receiving her coat from the coat hanger.

"Thank you," said Emma, smiling at Darley.

Darley smiled back. "There's just one thing though," she said.

"What is it?"

Darley's cheerful face turned into a serious one. "That would be £2500 and I have to check it for poison."


End file.
